The LifeLink Foundation and cadaver kidney transplantation in Tampa

1. LifeLink Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, has been the driving force and absolutely essential entity for kidney and liver transplantation in Tampa providing all the components (patient, organs and clinicians) save for inpatient hospitalization. It also plays a big role in the heart transplant program. LifeLink has increased the kidney transplant rate from the first 1,000 done in 17 years to the second 1,000 in 7 years and is on a pace for the third 1,000 in 5 1/2 years. 2. Because of its innovative programs, cadaver donor procurement by the Tampa LifeLink OPO has been roughly double the national average for the past 10 years. Because of cadaver kidney availability the median wait time from activation on the wait list to transplantation over the past 5 years was 159 days. The recent transplant rate is 14.7-22.7% higher than the national average, dependent upon the parameter measured. Similar results are seen for Tampa patients awaiting heart and liver transplantation. 3. The overall outcome of 1,184 cadaver kidney transplants performed in the decade 1989-98 was similar to that reported from the UNOS database in this series of publications. a) One- and 2-year graft survival increased 2% per year over the decade with a recent one-year graft survival rate of 96%. The overall T1/2 was 10 years. b) Our disastrous 1994 results were quickly reversed by a more intense pretransplant medical evaluation, the introduction of mycophenolate mofetil, more aggressive and earlier treatment of rejection episodes, and mandatory T- and B-cell flow cytometry crossmatching for all transplants. The incidence of rejection episodes decreased from 40 to 20%, and the first year immunological graft loss decreased from 5%, to 1.9%, to 0.8%, to 1.4% and 0% over the succeeding 4 years. 4. Individual factors affecting allograft survival were strikingly similar to national data, although all did not react statistical significance probably due to the smaller numbers. a) Primary and second grafts had similar survival rates (p = 0.97) whereas the third or subsequent graft survival was 7-32% poorer (p = 0.02). b) Black recipients had survival rates 10-13% lower than Caucasians and other races (p = 0.003). c) Patients with a peak PRA > 50 had survival values 4-13% poorer than those with < 50 PRA (p = 0.14). d) Patients with 2-4 HLA mismatches had graft survival rates 4-10% poorer than those with 0-1 mismatch (p = 0.12), whereas those with 5-6 mismatches had rates 6-17% poorer (p = 0.04). e) Although 22% of our transplants were to patients > 60 years of age, there was no difference (p = 0.81 to 0.90) in graft survival for the age groups 0-40, 41-60 and > 61. However, the proportion of grafts lost due to patient death compared with all allografts lost, was very different at 21% in the youngest group, 43% in those 41-60 years of age, and 63% in recipients > 61 years. 5. The rate of delayed graft function with imported kidneys was higher (27 vs. 16%, p = 0.006) but essentially the same as local kidneys with the same ischemia times. However, 41% of local kidneys were transplanted within 12 hours of procurement. Totally, 78% of local kidneys were transplanted within 18 hours (11% DGF rate) versus 79% of imports being transplanted at > 18 hours (32% DGF rate). Ischemia time, not the kidney source is the key issue since: a) There was no difference in overall graft survival of imported versus local kidneys (p = 0.95) nor in comparing local versus import kidneys with (p = 0.66) or without (p = 0.69) DGF. b) There was, however, a 11-17% overall poorer graft survival over 3 years in kidneys with DGF (p < 0.001) seen with both local (9-18% poorer, p = 0.0002) and imported (12-19% poorer, p = 0.008) kidneys. c) Kidneys displaying DGF came from older donors (40 vs. 34 years, p = 0.023) and had longer ischemia times (21 vs. 15 hours, p < 0.0005). 6. Dual kidney transplants were started in late 1996 with older or marginal donors to provide a better chance of success fo